How About a Car-Free Lincoln Park

Parking in the grass is no way to share a public space. Photo: Ubrayj02

Anyone that’s read the Streetsblog comments section is familar with Ubrayj02 or Umberto Brayj. Not everyone has made the connection that Ubrayj is Josef Bray-Ali in real life, and he has an impressive track record of advocacy in his own right including founding the Bike Oven and the Flying Pigeon Bike Shop.

At his own blog, Brayj Against the Machine, Bray-Ali has written a couple of posts about people that drive to Lincoln Park, the largest tract of open space in his community, and park their cars on the grass and in pedestrian trails. Even worse, entitled drivers plow up and down the bike and pedestrian paths as though they owne them, even though they’re banned.

But, since Bray-Ali is more about solutions than problems, he’s come up with a solution that would allow people to drive to the park and protect the rest of the park goers from entitled, dangerous driving. To see his solution, head on over to his personal blog, Brayj Against the Machine.

Thanks for posting this Damien, I really hope that Assemblyman DeLeon’s office can help make a relationship between the Plaza de la Raza and the DMV office in Lincoln Heights work out in the community’s best interests.

If neither of these entities wants to get the job done, I’m not sure what else to do but start being a serious prick and calling tow trucks and mounting a hard-nosed campaign to prevent this type of crap from happening in Lincoln Park.

That set of options is a long way off, but it still exists and I’m not afraid of exercising it. The Plaza is a great place, but this parking mess is dangerous and unacceptable.

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